White Van Man Eclipsed

Lum

To be fair, fleet drivers are also usually doing long distances and are disproportionately affected by what commuters would think was just a small delay.

Imagine the situation, you are rushing to try to get north of Birmingham before 3PM to avoid the 4 hour long rush hour window, knowing full well that if you don't then you'll lose an hour and then get stuck in the 5PM tailbacks on the Thelwall viaduct, losing another hour and then by the time you get to Scotland you'll be way beyond the point where you should have stopped driving and also everywhere will be shut apart from the greasy kebab house. On the return journey then replace the lack of food with not getting to see your children as they will have already been put to bed.

Then you encounter someone doing 65mph in the outside lane, who thinks they are doing 70 because they don't know that all car speedos overread. It's kind of understandable that they get annoyed. Doesn't excuse the behaviour of a subset of these people, but it does explain it.

motorguy

mustrum_ridcully wrote: »

A little food for thought, the 3 series outsells the Ford Mondeo, so a 3 series is now more common (in both senses of the word) than a mondeo.

That has been the case for some time now.

I've owned various BMW's in the past, but i've only ever bought a car that impresses me, not to impress other people.

Strider590

C_Mababejive wrote: »

I take great pride in driving within the law and nothing warms my heart more than to see a frustrated driver in my mirrors as i pootle along at 30mph.

If your driving under the speed limit then that's highly irresponsible!!

I have a video from my daily commute this morning, which i'll post later.
A van leading a queue of cars doing 35 in a 60 limit and then 25 in a 30 limit..... Im 4 cars back from this guy and there's a silver merc van up my tail pipe!! we approach a bit of a straight road and he hoofs it past me and finds he's headed for an oncoming car, he forces the car infront of me toward the kerb and barges his way in.

Total and complete MORON!

However had slow coach at the front not been driving with such disregard for those behind, this would not have happened!

So, we saw a near head on collision with an innocent oncoming motorist, the car infront nearly ended up in a ditch and the car infront of him nearly got his car crushed by a sprinter van!!

Had a head on collision occured, it could easily have taken out 5 or 6 cars, most of whom were innocent motorists just trying to get to work!!

You might think it's clever to !!!! people off, but when your son/daughter gets wiped out in a head on crash with one of these impatient morons, will you be feeling quite so cocky?

motorguy

C_Mababejive wrote: »

I take great pride in driving within the law and nothing warms my heart more than to see a frustrated driver in my mirrors as i pootle along at 30mph. People really need to learn to take life at a slower pace. thrashing around is stressful and counter productive.

Who are you to make a judgement call on other peoples circumstances? What if that was a doctor on an emergency callout for example?

If its a 30 and you're doing 30 then grand, but to purposely drive slowly in a higher limit when circumstances would allow you to drive closer to the limit is just ridiculous

Idiophreak

Have to say, I don't agree...I see a lot of BMWs doing stupid stuff, driving quickly, undertaking, braking aggressively etc - but the only couple of times I've been subjected to *really* bad driving, proper tailgating, light flashing, proper cutting up, it's been white vans every time. I know it's an old clich!, but it's just my experience...

vikingaero

There's the concept of "reasonable progress" that should be enshrined in motoring law. Someone driving at 40mph in a 60 zone and not concentrating is going to be travelling at around 37mph real speed when their speedo shows 40mph. When they are looking at their surroundings and their indicated speed drops to 35mph, then all the people behind will be travelling at 32mph. Sometimes people have to travel long distances cross country where there are few opportunities for overtaking.

Idiophreak

vikingaero wrote: »

There's the concept of "reasonable progress" that should be enshrined in motoring law.

I quite agree.

Being overtaken in free traffic, on a motorway, in a car, by a lorry, should be punishable by death

flyingscotno1

pgilc1 wrote: »

Who are you to make a judgement call on other peoples circumstances? What if that was a doctor on an emergency callout for example?

If its a 30 and you're doing 30 then grand, but to purposely drive slowly in a higher limit when circumstances would allow you to drive closer to the limit is just ridiculous

Wouldn't a doctor use a green light on the car for that purpose?

Anyway people should always drive to their and their vehicles limit rather than target the road one of course. Shouldn't be inconsiderate, but even at times I've been harassed by people when no real need for it when doing the limit. Funnily it was a BMW X5 (with the lights on)- zoomed up behind me as I passed cars in a 50 at 50, I pulled back in and the car shot off only for me to pass him in the queue to the slip road roundabout. He passed me again at 40 in a 30 and guess what- 2 sets of lights on he was beside me! At rush hour in towns speeding rarely gains you more than 2 mins- I see it all the time, folk who shoot by me to end up 3 cars further forward in a queue!

In general, too many drivers seem to have lead foots and red mist at times- I'm amazed at the character changes some people I know go through when they get behind a wheel- they drive like Schumacher.

it is not always easy to let people pass either. I got stuck with an ambulance behind me for about a 1/2 a mile, he couldn't overtake- double white lines, no visibility, a stream of rush hour traffic the other way and there was no verge or lay-bys so we just had to push on till the next junction.

vikingaero

If you are in a line of vehicles you should always leave a gap for others to overtake and pull into. But most people don't and get all territorial. I would rather have an impatient driver ahead of me than 3cm from my rear bumper.

skiddlydiddly

People still cling onto the term white van man as if they are disproportionately worse drivers.They don't say "black car drivers" and tar all with the same brush.The amount of white vans on the road is probably the most common "type" of vehicle people encounter ignoring the fact that there are maybe a dozen different vehicles being included in the generalisation.

I see some attrocious driving from white vans, same as I see it from lots of different vehicles.People just notice it more because of the media hype.